Friday, November 11, 2005

Before we get back to Extreme Kate Bush Appreciation (more is coming), I would just like to sneak in some Extreme Fiery Furnaces Appreciaion. There is a new album, and it is fantastic. Oh yes, we do love us a concept album, especially when it's done by one of the best bands around. I was going to point you in the direction of this entirely correct EG review, but then I found the following 'From The Artist' note on Amazon, which I think gives a better sense of it:

Dear Listener, Tracks 3 and 4 take place in the 40s; tracks 5 and 6 in the 20s and 30s; track 7 in the later 50s; track 8 starts in the very early 40s; track 9 goes back and forth; track 10 takes place in the early 60s; the final track takes place in the early 90s. Track 2 takes place a few years ago; track 1 took place when it was recorded. The action depicted in "The Wayward Granddaughter" and "Slavin' Away" does not include the character Olga Sarantos plays on the rest of the record. "Slavin' Away" imagines that character--the main character-- fantasizing, a bit remotely, about the hard lot of other women. Now, I wouldn't guess that the Main Character actually thought the woman concerned was riding around in a Norton side-car and operating her own cottage industry trinket assembly/sweatshop: but it might have pleased her to picture it so. "The Wayward Granddaughter" is about a different Greek-American grandmother and her popular granddaughter ("Connie"). They're from Chicago's south suburbs and don't figure in the rest of the record; I wanted to have another (slightly younger) grandmother and family in there for perspective or comparison's sake, so to speak. Thank you for your time, Matthew Friedberger